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Texas, November 1963. Fifty years ago this week, US president John F Kennedy arrived for a tour of the Lone Star State, with planned stops in San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth, Dallas and Austin. He never made it to Austin.

On November 22, as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, three bullets spat out of a sixth-floor window and changed the course of history. Those bullets echoed across the packed square and subsequently the planet.

On Friday, Dallas will mark the occasion with public readings of JFK’s speeches, a military flyover and church bells tolling citywide.

The Texas School Book Depository; the triple underpass; the grassy knoll. All are Dealey Plaza landmarks that most of us are familiar with, even if we’ve never visited Texas.

Today they’re at the heart of a tourist trail snaking across Dallas that continues to fascinate. Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors come from around the world to walk through their own conspiracy theories, poke around in the undergrowth for the ‘missing’ bullet and try to piece together the events of that sunny Friday in late November.

President John F Kennedy in Dallas the moment before he was assassinated (Picture: Corbis)

A metropolis of 1.2million, Dallas has plenty more to offer than Kennedy tourism – the largest urban arts district in the US for starters, which can be found downtown spanning 19 blocks, packed with museums, theatres and restaurants.

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It is also home to a striking opera house designed by Norman Foster and a sculpture gallery conceived by The Shard architect Renzo Piano.

The city’s food scene is one of America’s rising stars and has changed considerably in the past five years. Keep it casual in the art district’s food truck court where local producers with names such as Bombay Chopstix, Cajun Tailgators and Jack’s ChowHound serve their crowd-pulling grub or head to Bolsa, a laid-back bistro and grocery that serves dishes such as wild-boar sausage and braised lamb breast with Kalamata olives.

Bolsa can be found in the Oak Cliff neighbourhood, once famous for its crime and poverty (and, incidentally, for a resident by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald).

Today it is considered one of the city’s most upcoming areas thanks, in part, to The Bishop Arts District, a two-block former warehouse area housing cool boutiques and independent restaurants.

This month, a free shuttle bus service launched between downtown and Oak Cliff to encourage travel between the two art hubs. The city’s enthusiasm for creativity will also honour JFK’s legacy: the Dallas LOVE Project has seen 30,000 original works of art depicting love and fraternity installed along the Kennedy motorcade route and other sites.

The Sixth Floor Museum, from which the three shots rang out the day JFK was killed (Picture: supplied)

At the heart of the Kennedy trail is the outstanding Sixth Floor Museum, situated in the former Book Depository from where Oswald fired. The museum contains more than 40,000 artefacts – from the handcuffs used to subdue Oswald, to the grey fedora worn by his assassin, local nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

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The exhibits are fascinating, particularly those analysing prevalent theories – with around 60 per cent of Americans still believing Oswald’s actions were part of a larger plot.

From the museum, the Discover Dallas bus tour allows visitors to explore theories first-hand, including a trip to Oswald’s boarding house, where he ran to change his clothes after the assassination.

It also stops at the Texas Theatre, the art deco cinema where he was arrested. Today, the cinema hosts a cocktail bar and continues to show movies. You can even take your popcorn and sit in the spot where Oswald was nabbed: right side, third row from the back, second seat in.

This month, Dallas’s world-class museums, vibrant live music and restaurant scenes will be overshadowed by the crime of the century. All eyes will be on sunny Dallas in November. And, if you look closely enough, there’s plenty to see.